Pushing Away Silence (Hyper)

"Adelene!!! Come 'ere lass!"

Adelene perked up her head from the bottles beside the counter as Kranz shouted from the small yard behind the shop. He always shouted like that, not bothering to leave his work even for just one second once he started. Adelene actually liked that about the old man, and never complained about being interrupted with whatever she was doing. She hurried to the yard and stopped by the doorframe.

"Yessir?"

The sound of coal crackling, metal melting, and blades being hit hard into perfect shape by a large solid hammer echoed in hot air. The echoing hits of the hammer only stopped when the old man straightened his back to face his employee. He had a few black smudges on his face. "Addy, we 'ave a new part-timer t'day. Gonna arrive anytime soon so make sure ya guide 'im well, yes? Just the usual stuff is fine."

Adelene tilted her head. New workmate, huh. She didn't expect they'd have another one, but then again manning the shop wasn't really as simple as it seemed. The shop was pretty spacious, and there were different dangerous weapons everywhere. While Adelene was an expert fighter, being in a medieval-themed dress made it less easy to move. Things would not go well if some bad guy comes in to make trouble. Or worse, if more than one come and try to rob the shop. Right. A workmate would make the shop more secured.

"Alright, sir!" she responded gladly. She made a cheeky grin, as she joined her hands together behind her. "Should I make him wear the uniform though? I mean, if it's the first day..."

"Nah, we can make 'im wear it next time. But make sure ya give it to 'im before he leaves today."

Adelene made an informal salute before going back to her spot behind the counter. She sat down a wooden chair, while waiting. It sure was a slow day. Meanwhile, the sound of hammering has resumed, pushing away silence. With a new workmate, there would be even less silence in the shop. Nice.

Adelene did not want to be seen idle behind the counter, but there was nothing to do so she remained seated there, tapping on the counter with her fingers, as she waited. And then the bells above the opening door rang and made her jump up from her seat, her heart almost blown out of her chest.

Startled, she turned to the door wide-eyed. But she tried her best to remove that startled expression as soon as she realized that the newcomer was her new workmate. "Oh, hi! Sir Kranz just told me you were coming," she said, and walked to the side of the counter and out to join her new workmate in that part of the shop. She held out her hand for a shake, as she beamed brightly at him. "Name's Adelene. I'm also a part-timer, so it's kinda great to have you here. Sky, the other person working here, mans the shop when I'm not around. Uh..."

It was slowly getting awkward. She didn't exactly know how to start the briefing. "...so what should I call you? Oh, and Sir Kranz is at the back. I wonder if you wanna let him know you've arrived?"

"Oh, nice to meet you then, Allan."

Adelene was honestly not comfortable all of a sudden. Allan, was he just shy? But really, actually, she thought he didn't like her. Was her approach wrong?

She forced her smile to remain on her lips, despite her eyes immediately showing her mood's drop. "He's in the back. Just follow the hammer sounds. I'm pretty sure he won't mind being interrupted with a hi," she replied, pointing to the door at the back beyond the counter and the storage area. "Uh... If possible though, come back soon. I'm supposed to tell you what to do around here, and show you around. Sir Kranz can't leave his work long enough to do it himself so you'll be stuck with me. If you're not up to it though, I don't think it's a good idea to force you..."

What the hell was she saying? How was it not a good idea, this was work for Pete's sake. She cringed. There's no way to take it back, is there?

The girl was still where she had been the last time. She was looking at the potion shelves by the time Allan came back, though. Her head shot up towards him, and her lips automatically curved up to a smile. "Welcome back," she greeted before gesturing for him to come closer. She didn't seem like she noticed the awkwardness in the male's tone, and she also seemed like she's already let the thing a while ago slip.

"Did the old man say anything, by the way?" she asked, unconscious tilting her head slightly. "Come here, let's start," she said. She wasn't stepping away from the potions, and seemed pretty excited to introduce the beautiful bottles to him.

"There aren't many stuff you have to memorize, but these are pretty important. So we're going to learn about these first. Okay?"

What was the harm in asking?

Ah, but Adelene immediately gave him a wide-eyed look of disbelief. Shocked that he even asked. "O-Of course they're real! Sir Kranz is a legit mage! He's awesome! He can do so much stuff others can't!" And before they knew it, she was starting to throw a fit. A childish-like one, that quickly died down. And then her straight face right after showed that she was not serious about snapping.

"No worries, I'm not angry. But seriously, we can't sell fake stuff or it's going to ruin the shop's reputation."

The small shelf had four levels, each of them having their own colors for the potion bottles. The top most had purple translucent bottles with yellow sealers, and inside of each bottle was thick dark fluid. "These are the healing potions. They're all in this kind of bottle, so don't forget the color coding," Adelene explained. And then she pointed at the second level, with dark blue bottles with gray seals. She told him that these were physical strengthening potions. The ones on the third level were red bottles. They were the disarming potions, meant to weaken abilities. And the lowest level had the teal bottles for sleeping potions with varying degrees of effectiveness.

"We also have enhancement potions, but the customer would have to specify what ability they want enhanced before getting their item," she said lastly, before turning to Allan again. "What's your ability, by the way? I'm pretty sure you have one, since the main purpose for manning this shop is protecting it. I mean... look around, there are weapons everywhere. If a crazy person walks in... We need to do what we must."